Deleuze and Guattari World Congress 2020 Encountering the ...
Transcript of Deleuze and Guattari World Congress 2020 Encountering the ...
Deleuze and Guattari World Congress 2020
on
Encountering the Social: Masquerades, Fluidities,
and Becomings of Postcapitalism
organized by
Centre for Culture, Media and Governance,
Jamia Millia Islamia
&
Deleuze and Guattari Studies in India Collective
in association with
All India Communication and Media Association
20-22 February 2020
(All the details of the program are available on www.deleuzeindia.com The last date for
conference and camp registration is 30 Nov 2019. As per the new schedule the Deleuze and
Guattari World Congress will be held from 20-22 February 2020 and the International
Deleuze Camp will be from 17-19 February 2020.)
Chief Patron
Prof. Najma Akthar
Vice Chancellor, JMI
Conference Conveners
Prof. Biswajit Das
Director, CCMG
Jamia Millia Islamia
Dr. Manoj NY
Assistant Professor, CCMG
& Gen. Secretary
Deleuze and Guattari Studies in India Collective
Rationale
As the title, “Encountering the Social: Masquerades, Fluidities, and Becomings of
Postcapitalism”, indicates, the conference is proposed to take up a comprehensive
investigation of the disorders and traumas generated by Postcapitalism which in turn has
colonized every aspect of contemporary human life. Recognizing that there is no single way
of answering the questions spawned by this syndrome, the conference invites the participants
to address them from a Deleuzo-Guattarian perspective supplemented by relevant insights
drawn from Foucault. The novelty of Deleuzo-Guattarian analysis derives from its fluid and
differential structure that syncs perfectly with the deceptive and unpredictable forays of
postcapitalism in the complexly structured global ecumene at present. What is singular about
their approach is that it does way with bounded territories, hierarchies, and representations.
Instead, what it highlights are flows, networks, unnatural synthesis, and symbiotic bonds.
This wide latitude, non-closure, and the dynamics of emergence that characterize their
philosophy is reflected in their approach to systems of knowledge also; disciplines and
analytic protocols as different and wide as geology and geometry, metallurgy and
metaphysics, or anthropology and alchemy can find comfortable berth within their system.
This non-exclusionary and encompassing nature of their system makes it undoubtedly the
most eligible candidate for an interdisciplinary analysis of post-capitalism and its troubles.
For Deleuze, Postcapitalism operates at present primarily by constituting the human in an
information mode or recomposing it as a cybernetic being. The human becomes code and
information. From the DNA code to our bank account password, everything now revolves
around digital codes whose primary base is memory. Forgetting the password means denial of
access to the sustaining domains and certain support systems of human life. On the
technology side, huge digital archives are being set up that can store the personal detail of the
citizens which become handy for the postcapitalist state to exercise anonymous vigil and
unsolicited intrusions into the private lives of its citizenry. Deleuze calls this postcapitalist
society, “the society of control”. The control, in distinction to the conventional theories of
power, is not exercised from the outside mechanically, but through the “modulation” of the
interiority and mind using cyber devices.
Since the Deleuzian perspective is relational and differential, the social order based on
digitization and control is not something autonomous or self-contained in itself. It is only one
layer of the topologically constituted orders of postcapitalism. The other two orders are
analyzed most profoundly by Foucault: the first one is the disciplinary order that “moulds”
the individuals according to the postcapitalist imperatives; and the second one, the
“biopower” that is skillfully deployed by the state to “manage” its population. While schools,
barracks, hospitals and the suchlike becomes the locus of the disciplinary power, it is
protective measures like insurance, social security, Medicaid etc. through which the state
manages its population. On the whole, according to Maurizio Lazzaretto, three “Ms”
represent the topologically tangled state of postcapitalism: the “modulation” of mind by the
control society, the “moulding” of the individual by its disciplinary segment, and the
“management” of population by the biopower-deploying postcapitalist state. Of course, these
three strata are interconnected and inter-defined and the Deleuzo-Guattarian perspective
throws the most incisive light into its undersides.
We propose an integrated analysis in the case of the troubles of postcapitalism with Deleuze-
Guattarian philosophy and Foucault’s stances forming its two complementary components.
Of the many vital connections between them, it is perhaps “power” that becomes the
strongest bridge. Deleuze’s slim volume, Foucault (1988), becomes the vital pointer to this
association. In a famous formulation, Foucault had stated that an adequate analysis of power
demands that we “cut off the king’s head.” He was indicating the necessity to dispense with a
substantive and hierarchical conception of power. Contra the latter, he proposed a theory of
the “microphysics of power”, according to which power is ubiquitous and is a differential
derivative or effect of the relations between individuals within their social locations and
networks. If these relations break or change, even the king may turn powerless. Though we
can examine power relations empirically, we cannot know a priori what they are or what they
will become. Sometimes power is created through flows of money, while at other times it
may be generated in discourse or activism. And yet at other times, it may be the effect of
technology, the forces of nature, or perhaps even ritual and magic. There cannot be
predictable patterns, definable strategies, or identifiable locations. Constellations of power do
not respect established loci or preconceived divisions, and are subject to change over time. In
Deleuze’s and Foucault’s analysis, power is never to be found in the same place, or that it
will be of the same form always.
This leads us to a supposedly provincial problem. Where does India or Asia stand in this
apparently Western schemata and paradigm? Needless to say, there is nothing like a separatist
regimen or discrete status quo in the present globalized world. One’s problem is equally the
other’s in a complexly sutured global regime. What is critical is only the differentials of
power and the intensity of incursions in this enfolding global ontology of postcapitalism.
Definitely, for expedition sake, India or Asia can be dilated under the theoretical lens of
Deleuzian concepts to a better level and higher degree; but only within the economy and
logic of an integrated analysis scaffolded on a global platform. Of course, the resources of the
Deleuzo-Guattarian repertoire can be most profitably drawn upon, which can highlight the
complex facets of the Indian reality. Signature concepts like difference, rhizome, strata,
deterritorialization, assemblage, multiplicity, nomadology, machine, fold, and so on, can
throw better light on a set of autochthonous and allochthonous issues like post-coloniality,
poverty, underdevelopment, human rights violation, gender disparity, environmental
degradation, religious fundamentalism, terrorism, fascism, which in turn have become the
unfortunate patrimony of the postcolonial India at present.
Themes of the conference
Post-Capitalist Differentials/Fragmentations
Postmedia Assemblages
Communication in the Digital Age
Bio Capitalism and A Life
Cyborgs and Posthuman Hybridities
Abject Bodies, Biosociality, and Biopolitics
Transgenderism, Selfhood, and Silences of Society
Asian Societies as Assemblages
Political Ecology and Developmental Rhetoric
New materialisms and Colonization of Life
Anthropocene and Ecosophy
Queering the Gender
Confirmed Speakers
Daniela Angelucci, Università Roma Tre, Italy
Eva D Bahovec, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Jeffrey A Bell, Southeastern Louisiana University, USA
Joff PN Bradley, Teikyo University, Japan
Ian Buchanan, University of Wollongong, Australia
David R Cole, Western Sydney University, Australia
Felicity Colman, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Barbara Glowczewski, College de France, France
Emine Gorgul, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Tatsuya Higaki, Osaka University, Japan
Woosung Kang, Seoul National University, South Korea
Leonard Lawlor, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, Kyung Hee University, South Korea
Paul Patton, University of New South Wales, Australia
Raghuramaraju, IIT-Tirupati, India
Marc Rolli, University of Leipzig, Germany
Anne Sauvagnargues, Universite Paris Nanterre, France
Tony See, University of London, Singapore
Daniel Smith, Purdue University, USA
Kenneth Surin, Duke University, USA
Toshiya Ueno, Wako University, Japan
Janell Watson, Virginia Tech University, USA
Registration
The last date for conference registration is November 30, 2019. The Conference Abstract
should not exceed 500 words (Times New Roman, Single space, Font size 11).The last date
for the submission of abstracts is November 30, 2019.
You will be notified of the acceptance after the scrutiny of the abstract. Once the abstract is
accepted, one can proceed to the payment of the Registration Fee. The deadline for
submission of the Full Paper (5000 – 6000 words, Harvard/Chicago referencing, Times New
Roman, One and a half space, Font size 11, Justified text, PDF format) is January 15, 2020.
We also welcome participants who wish to attend the Conference without presenting a paper.
They can also start the process of Registration by submitting their Statement of Purpose (not
exceeding 500 words, Times New Roman, Single space, Font size 11) before the last date of
submission. If selected, they will be intimated via email and thereafter can proceed to the
final Registration and the payment of fees. The last date for the payment of registration fee is
December 20, 2019.
Once you are selected for the conference presentation, the participants have to send the full
paper latest by January 15, 2020. Those who haven’t submitted the full papers won’t be
included in the final schedule of the conference.
Conference Abstracts Screening
There will be a conference screening committee comprising of international Deleuze
scholars. The abstracts will be scrutinized by the committee and the decision taken by the
committee shall be the final.
Registration Fees
Both Camp and Conference (6 Days)
International Faculty: 220 USD
International Students and Other Categories: 180 USD
Indian Students and Other Categories: 5000 INR
Indian Faculty: 8000 INR
Deleuze Conference (3 Days)
International Faculty: 200 USD
International Students and Other Categories: 150 USD
Indian Faculty: 5000 INR
Indian Students and Other Categories: 3500 INR
The registration fee for participants from India includes refreshments and lunch during the
conference days. Please note that the registration fee doesn’t cover the accommodation. The
information regarding budget hotels will be available on our website soon. The registration
for the conference is provisional. One can proceed to the payment of registration fee via bank
or online, only after getting the approval (intimated via email) from the conference
committee. The payment of the registration fee prior to the approval of the committee stands
invalid.
Registration
The form and details http://www.deleuzeindia.com/dg-conference/
Important Dates
Submission of the Abstract (Conference): November 30, 2019
Payment of Registration Fee (Conference): December 20, 2019
Submission of the Full Paper (Conference): January 15, 2020
Contact Us
Dr. Manoj NY
Email ID: [email protected]
Mobile: +919731746764